Mizuho Securities reiterated on Friday its Neutral rating and $13 price target on Rivian following a meeting with the EV maker’s Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough and Senior Manager of Strategic Finance Jacob Gomez.
In a new note to clients, analyst Vijay Rakesh said the launch of Rivian’s next-generation R2 SUV remains on schedule for the first half of 2026, with initial pilot production underway and order books expected to open early next year.
Chief Operating Officer Javier Varela said this week that the company’s Normal, Illinois plant is “firmly on track” to be prepared for production of the R2.
Rivian started accepting reservations in the US and Canada in March 2024 with a $100/ CA$150 deposit.
In less than 24 hours, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said the EV maker had secured “more than 68,000 reservations” for the $45,000 midsize electric SUV.
In its latest note, Mizuho said on Friday that it is confident in battery supply from LG Energy Solution’s Arizona facility for the second half of 2026, but noted that orders for China-sourced LFP battery packs could face headwinds from tariffs, particularly for standard variants of Rivian’s R1 and EDV commercial vehicles.
Rakesh added that the recently announced partnership with Volkswagen will enable joint sourcing of electronic control units and displays—components that represent 15% to 20% of the bill of materials—leading to lower production costs.
He said Rivian is taking a conservative approach to new commercial van programs, with several pilot initiatives currently underway.
The carmaker said late last year that it had received conditional approval for a loan of up to $6.6 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy to build its electric vehicle production facility in Georgia.
It remains unclear whether President Donald Trump will roll back many of the Biden administration’s EV-friendly policies.
Mizuho said the company expects some impact from a potential rollback in regulatory credits under a new U.S. tax bill but remains optimistic about securing a Department of Energy loan.
Rivian shares closed at $13.91 on Thursday. As of the time of writing, the stock is trading 0.3% higher in the final hour of Friday’s pre-market session.
Rivian laid off this week roughly 140 employees, or about 1% of its workforce, TechCrunch reported on Thursday, citing multiple affected workers.
This marks the third workforce reduction at Rivian in the past 18 months. The company had previously slashed about 10% of its workforce in February 2024, followed by another 1% reduction in April.
In a statement to TechCrunch, Rivian said it had made “the difficult decision to reduce a small number of our salaried manufacturing employees as part of an ongoing effort to improve operational efficiency for R2.”
